Former president Goodluck Jonathan has said the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, is the first presidential candidate to visit him,Dailytrust report.
As the 2023 elections approach, presidential candidates, as part of their campaigns, pay visit to elder statemen to seek their support.
Obi, who was in Bayelsa State on Friday to campaign, paid courtesy visit to Jonathan, during which the ex-president made the statement.
Full text:
“I want to thank you that you are the first presidential candidate to pay a courtesy visit to me. I want to use this opportunity to encourage you in what you are doing.
“I have been listening to comments from political leadership and sometimes our supporters do more damage on our behalf. And I must commend you because your utterances so far have not shown any division. Just keep doing what is right. If you win, you will be a president for the whole nation, you won’t be a President for any group of people,” several reports quoted Jonathan to have said this during the meeting.
Verdict: False
Checks by Daily Trust showed that the statement by the former president is false. The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had visited Jonathan in August, 2022, about four months earlier, in Abuja.
Tinubu was accompanied by his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, alongside a delegation of five APC governors.
Conclusion
It is not true that Obi was the first presidential candidate to visit Jonathan as the former president claimed. The APC presidential candidate had done so earlier; thus the statement is false.
